More than 400 female workers at a bra factory in southern China cut off the power and downed tools after a manager told one to "jump off a roof and go to hell", state-run media said on Tuesday.

Workers wearing pink overalls walked off the job at Top Form Underwear after a Cantonese-speaking boss verbally abused a Mandarin-speaking worker who didn't understand instructions, the New Express reported.

The strike in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen is the latest in a string of actions driven by worker dissatisfaction in the Pearl River Delta, known as the workshop of the world for the millions of Chinese migrant workers employed by factories there.

Last week, more than 7,000 workers at a factory in nearby Dongguan making New Balance, Adidas and Nike shoes went on strike, clashing with police in a protest over layoffs and wage cuts.

In July, a 21-year-old employee of Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn jumped to his death in southern China, reports said, and at least 13 employees died in apparent suicides last year which activists blamed on tough working conditions.

A Hong Kong-based labor group in May accused the company, which employs around one million people at its massive Chinese plants, of treating its workers like "machines".

Workers at Top Form had earlier complained of management bullying, and criticized a change in February from a regular base monthly salary of 500 yuan ($79) plus overtime to a system that paid them per bra they completed.

The piecework system prevented them from making enough money to meet the rising cost of living, they said.

The company's management "takes this incident very seriously and they are making progress today" in negotiations with the workers, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong-listed Top Form who asked not to be named told Agence France-Presse.

Workers unionizing and demanding better wages and working conditions huh?
SOON they will ACHIEVE their goals and the price of the products labor will INCREASE. The manufacturing company will then search out CHEAPER LABOR no doubt. Resulting in the factories CLOSING DOWN and the LOSS of jobs.

Now I scratch my bony little head and ask myself where I have seen this cycle occur before?????